The present invention relates to an improved anaerobic waste water treatment process to more efficiently treat waste water.
In conventional anaerobic treatment processes, waste water, containing organic matter, is treated in a single vessel or anaerobic region utilizing suspended growth bacteria. However, the anaerobic digestion of organic matter involves two independent biological fermentation or digestion steps or phases. In the first phase hydrolytic and acidogenic bacteria convert dispersed and dissolved organics into intermediates comprising aldehydes, alcohols, acids, and carbon dioxide. In the second phase, methanogenic bacteria convert the intermediates from the first phase into methane and carbon dioxide. Sulfur compounds, if present, are reduced to hydrogen sulfide gas.
Processes utilizing separate reactors or reaction zones for each phase have been developed to permit independent and more efficient control of the operating parameters of the separate phases. However, existing processes fail to utilize the full potential of the anaerobic treatment process.